We left just in time.

Neal predict snow height at Skunk Cactus Seed LevelBack when Lilla and Neal visited us at Jerry’s Acres, Neal suggested that we were in for a winter of heavy snow. His reasoning was based on a news story he had seen about the local Skunk Cactus — or at least he thinks that’s what the newscaster called this weed, and I think that’s what he called it.

Neal mentioned how the height at which the seed pods begin is an indication of that season’s snowfall depth. Based on a recent weather report from home, sent to us by Codie Rae’s people, I’m starting to believe him…

Red Feather Lakes: Snow and areas of blowing snow before midnight, then snow likely and areas of blowing snow after midnight. Low around 14. Wind chill values as low as -5. North northwest wind between 14 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible.

Time to head South for the WinterNeedless to say, I believe we left just in time. Based on the reports we’re getting from back home, we would have likely been stuck there quite a while – if not all winter – had we not pulled away when we did. That, or we would have been digging out the trailer to hit the road.

But we haven’t exactly headed to warmer climes, yet. Our second night here in Fernley, our hose froze. We had forgotten to leave a faucet dripping overnight. Keeping the water moving through the hose will help it from freezing solid and ensure you have running water in the morning. Insulating the hose with foam pipe-wrap available in the plumbing section of any home supply store also helps. As does having water in your fresh water tank as a backup.

How quickly we forget these things after staying put for a few months. I remember first seeing an RVer fuss with a frozen hose at a riverside park in Ashville, NC two years ago and laughing. The other morning it was my turn. After struggling to thaw things out enough to get our water flowing, we have now practiced these precautionary measures I preach. Good thing René hadn’t yet begun her early morning shifts at the Amazon warehouse!

6 thoughts on “We left just in time.”

  1. Had a great time meeting ya’ll tonight. It only took us like 1.5 years to get together. We will have to do it again sometime.

    I hope Wyatt did OK.

    Guess what. You get an extra hour of birthday fun. We just found out its time to turn your clocks back. Happy B-day!

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  2. I am glad the cold weather was short lived. I thought for sure it was following you guys. Johnny made an snowman (ice, really, but it did fall from the sky) the night you arrived.

    Other than the occasional thunder(less) storm, the weather has been perfect the last couple of weeks. It looks like next week will be nice again.

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  3. Where are ya’ll staying? We stayed at desert rose rv park in fernley before moving to hub totel in Fallon. I’m jealous!!! The Fallon and Reno areas Are our old romping grounds! Let me know if you are interested in a great place to find agate. We have a basketball-sized agate on our porch from an area just south of fernley near the school.

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    • 2 funny! We are at the Desert Rose. 🙂

      We’d love to go agate hunting. Any recommendations for a good birthday dinner this weekend would be appreciated too.

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      • I’ll dig out the exact directions to the agate-finding place a little later today. I just hope they haven’t subdivided it! Re dinner, I really have nothing to suggest in that area. We tried several buffets at the casinos in Reno. There was one that had an awesome seafood buffet, but neither of can remember which casino it was. I think we did more cooking than eating out then, and with all the rockhounding we did in NV, it could be that we didn’t take time to eat! Now, we found the best fajitas ever in Visalia CA, and the best pizza pies at Oreganos in Scottsdale!

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      • I found my directions for Fernley Agate:
        Take 95A south about 5 miles from town.
        When you see the dump turnoff, pick a spot to pull off.
        Agate is scattered on both sides of the road. For another site, continue S on 95 another .8 miles past the dump turnoff. Turn RT where you see the ruts leading off to the right. Go about .2 miles to the next road. Go either north or south on it, park, and walk west to search.
        I didn’t mark which one of these the basketball-sized agate was at, but I am almost positive it was the second one because we had followed a road parallelling 95A back north a little ways, and walked north up a really steep hill. We found a horned lizard there also. Seems like maybe this was a service road for a high pressure gas line. The agate was almost at the top of the hill. You should have seen James rolling it down toward the truck! I was not leaving there without it. I think he grumbled the entire way down, and we hauled that agate around in the truck for months. Hope ya’ll have a great birthday weekend!

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